​High cost of free college tuition - John McLellan

​The rocks will melt in the sun before there are tuition fees in Scotland, pledged former First Minister Alex Salmond, and the effect of that promise will be felt next year as universities and colleges face a £107m cash cut.

Former SNP leader Alex Salmond addresses the SNP National conference at Aberdeen Exhibition and Conference Centre in Scotland. Picture: PA

​Colleges have already been stripped to the bone to fund universities swollen beyond their capabilities by accepting thousands of students for thinly-run courses in a sausage machine with diminishing heed to quality, and now those ‘free’ Scottish places will need to be reduced.

But as budgets fall, universities will try to bridge the gap with hundreds more foreign students paying big fees for sub-standard post-graduate courses cobbled together with minimum resources.

To the fury of local residents, developers throw up student flats to meet the demand, but without easily available flats the foreign students won’t come and the universities forced into deeper cuts.

So, the next time you hear the same SNP politicians boasting about free tuition but kicking off about student flat developments – such as Jock’s Lodge and Northfield Broadway ─ remember they are a product of SNP policy.

Like health, Scottish higher education is in desperate need of reform, not just to control costs but to help school leavers make more effective choices.

Basic four-year courses should be three, like they are in most countries, and if free tuition is to stay it should only for priority courses to meet skill shortages. Practical training courses should be for the colleges.

Too many go to university for the “experience” and that’s not something taxpayers should fund.